Joseph is a self-taught artist. He was, however, brought up by a mother, who was an artist (art teacher), and a father, who was very musically and visually talented as well. These two very important influences in Joseph's life helped to set the stage for the venture he has undertaken as an artist.

In his youth, Joseph Perkins was a musician, due to his father's involvement as a high school band teacher. Though, at the age of about 16, the scene was changed when his parents divorced. With his father no longer in the "grand scheme" of things, Joseph was given the opportunity to pursue and develope his talent as a visual artist.

In this time, Joseph took every art course available to him in high school and was tutored from time to time, off site, by his art instructors. Though, once high school was over, and he began living life as a so-called "adult", Joseph lost sight of his art due to some depressive circumstances in his life.

After a suicide attempt (1998), graduating from Virginia College in Birmingham, Alabama, as a webmaster (2000), a marriage, which ended after only 3 years (2000 - 2003), and a number of other disasters along the way, art was re-introduced into Joseph's life and became his passion once again.

One of the disasters that created the pivoting point in his life, to go back to work as an artist, was a car fire he and his wife experienced in the summer of 2002. It destroyed ever personal possession along with Joseph's art portfolio, which contained most of his work from the last decade. Though the situation was horrifying at the time, it was more enlightening than damaging. Joseph began to see things in a totally different light. Material possessions meant much less while Joseph's ability to create was seemingly the only thing he would ever be able to hold onto.

With this new found awareness, Joseph picked up a paint brush in the summer of 2003 and never put it back down.

Within these short 3 years, Joseph attended the Art Institute of Philadelphia, and then decided to move back to Birmingham, Alabama, to be with his family again, and produced around 75 medium to large scale, and an uncountable number of small scale works. He continues his practices and development on a daily basis, with no obvious inclination of when the productivity will cease.

Artist Highlights

• ArtWanted.com Gallery:    Fine Art